Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Samuel 4:15

Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see.

15. his eyes were dim ] Were set, a different word from that of ch. 1Sa 3:2, found again in this sense only in 1Ki 14:4. Eli was now totally blind.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Dim – Rather, set. The word is quite different from that so rendered in 1Sa 3:2. The phrase seems to express the fixed state of the blind eye, which is not affected by the light. Elis blindness, while it made him alive to sounds, prevented his seeing the ripped garments and dust-besprinkled head of the messenger of bad news.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Now Eli was ninety eight years old,…. Which is very properly observed, he being now come to the end of his days, and which also accounts for his blindness after mentioned:

and his eyes were dim, that he could not see; could not see the messenger, and read in his countenance, and perceive by his clothes rent, and earth on his head, that he was a bringer of bad tidings; or his eyes each of them “stood” h; were fixed and immovable, as the eyes of blind men be. In 1Sa 3:2 it is said, “his eyes began to wax dim”; but here that they “were” become dim; and there might be some years between that time and this, for Samuel then was very young, but now more grown up: though Procopius Gazaeus thinks that Eli was then ninety eight years of age, and that the affair there related was just before his death; but it rather appears to be some time before.

h “stetit”, Montanus; “stabant”, Tigurine version.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Eli was ninety-eight years old, and “ his eyes stood,” i.e., were stiff, so that he could no more see (vid., 1Ki 14:4). This is a description of the so-called black cataract ( amaurosis), which generally occurs at a very great age from paralysis of the optic nerves.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(15) Ninety and eight years old.The LXX. here reads ninety years, the Syriac Version seventy eight. In the sacred text, where numbers are concerned we usually find these varieties of translation and interpretation. The present system of numerals was invented by the Arabs. The Hebrews use the letters of the alphabet to express numbers. Such a system was naturally fruitful in errors of transcription, and thus numbers, and dates especially, in the earlier books of the Old Testament are frequently confused and uncertain. Many of the difficulties which have given so much trouble to commentators have arisen out of the confusion of copyists substituting, through inadvertence, in Hebrew one letter for another. Instead of his eyes were dim, the more accurate rendering would be his eyes were setwere stiff, so that he could no longer see. This, as Keil observes, is a description of the so-called black cataract (amaurosis), which not unfrequently occurs at a very great age from paralysis of the optic nerves.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

15. Eyes were dim Literally: And Eli (was) a son of ninety and eight years, and his eyes stood, that is, became fixed; “spoken of a person afflicted with a disease of the eye, in which the pupil becomes fixed, so as no longer to contract and dilate.” Gesenius.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments